Feeding Sheep for Market. 165 



Feeders often make a mistake in marketing 

 their lambs before they are fat. Sheep or lambs 

 that are not in a fat condition when brought to the 

 market, or so-called "half-fed" stuff, are often sold 

 at a sacrifice. Butchers are willing to pay high 

 prices for prime animals, but are just as unwilling 

 to pay much for stuff only half fat. This class of 

 sheep suffers from depression in price at nearly 

 all times of the year. 



Large, heavy ewes are invariably considered a 

 drug on the market, while lambs weighing from 

 eighty to ninety pounds and in prime condition are 

 readily sold at good prices. The eighty-five pound 

 lamb is in greater demand on the market than the 

 one hundred pound lamb. Packers claim that the 

 one hundred pound lamb is not as profitable to 

 them as what is termed the "handy weight" lamb. 



In a lot of fattening lambs some will always 

 thrive better and put on flesh more rapidly than 

 others. Therefore, when some of them have been 

 properly fattened and prices are right, these 

 should be selected and shipped and the thinner 

 ones should be retained and fed until they also 

 have become fat. 



Before marketing lambs clip all loose locks of 

 wool off from their sides and necks, caused by 

 rubbing against each other on the feed troughs or 

 crowding each other at meal time. Also tag them 



